Sunday, April 24, 2005

Jerry's Milk Bar, Elwood

As far as I'm aware, the "milk bar" is a uniquely Australian version of the local corner store. Every suburb used to have at least one or two, where you could buy milk, bread, newspapers, mixed lollies and ridiculously over-priced groceries. Thanks to 24/7 supermarkets and 7-Eleven, many have gone the way of the Dodo. But Jerry's Milk Bar, at 345 Barkly Street, Elwood, Tel +61 3 9531 3078, has blended milk, bread, Pez and musk sticks, with eggs, bacon, toast and lattes to keep the flag flying.

New Yorkers and Clockwork Orange fans should be warned that Jerry's is not a milk bar in the style of Korova, in the East Village. You won't viddy any droogy malchiks or devotchkas peeting late-nochy molokos here. Jerry's is strictly eggiweggs, jammiwams and other day-time fare.

My scrambles were light but firm, with well grilled bacon and tasty fried mushrooms, all served on a slice of crunchy golden toast. Hard to fault really, although for a perfect score I think the "Hens in Clover" free range scrambled eggs needed an extra dob of butter. Other menu highlights included corn fritters with smoked salmon and salad, Jerry's "world famous" bircher muesli, and pancakes with banana and maple syrup.

The Genovese coffee was good (although my second cappucino was over-filled and under-frothed), and the service wasn't bad, despite a hint of attitude. At times I wondered whether the staff might have been doing us a favour by allowing us to crash their private "in crowd" party, particularly as they cranked up some obscure "isn't this cool" CD to an annoying volume. But all-in-all, they served up great eggs and good coffee for about 15 bucks a head. Good value brekky.